Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-05-06
DWARFs AND MlDGETs.
The Whtms and Oddities Of These.
IS .sss..g Little People. s

DWARFs AND MIDGETs.
The wh1ns and Oddities OF These
J. s . Little People.
THE dwarf business isn't what it
once was a.5 MI Il
+ William Wheeler, for years midget
Spectator, leaned musingly against
the anarchist cage and endeavored to
catch the eye of the waxy August Spies,
who was staring at Miss Van Zandt
across the hail.
''Then, too" continued Mr.. Wheel
er, ''dwarfs are running out. A few
years ago they We're springing up,
though not very high, in all parts of
the world. 1t seemed to be a sort of
dwarf age. For awhile 55-inch dwarf
could not earn a living salary. He had
to possess some striking physical fea-
ture if he hoped to secure permanent
situations in museum circuits. Now,
however, all this has changed. Lots
of the old-time Lillputians have passed
away. and a 40-inch freak can get
chair in tirst-class curio hall if he is
good-looking and intelligent. The bus
mess was nearly ruined at one time by
tricksters. As you have possibly OBJ
served, midgets without exception have
abnormally large heads. Unprincipled
showmen. when the dwarf supply be-
came inadequate, would take children
with large heads and old faces and
work them upon the circuits. There
suddenly became such an influx of lit:
tie folks upon the market that none of
the true midgets aside from Mrs. STRAIT
ton or Admiral Dot, could get work
that paid. This has passed away. and
there is no fraud about the present
representatives of dwarfdom.
Il never saw but two perfectly-form-
ed midgets. These were Mrs. Gen.
Tom Thumb, who is now Countess Rose
bud, and Princess Lucy. There is al
ways some deformity. Take Gen.
Thumb, for instance. He. was badly
developed in the torso. Other people
have poorly constructed limbs or arms,
and almost universally they are double
jointed at the knees or elbows. You
see, the lack Of stature must be at
tributable to something, as nearly as
can make out it is in the joints.
''What is the most striking charact-
eristic of these freaks? Intemperance.
There is no class of people on earth
that is SO given to drink. The men al
ways like whisky, and the femals dote
on beer. Gen. Thumb was fond Of
smoking, but aside from him tobacco
is not used among the men.
20
in dwarfs appeared in more than one
generation. This occurred in that Of
Admiral Dot. He is the uncle of Maj
Adams, the mid get clown of the Barn
UNI show. Adams is about twenty one
inches in height and his father was
nearly six feet tall. Dot is travelling
about the country now with little Jen-
ME Quigley. They earn jointly 500 a
week.
"Speaking about Princess Lucy re-
minds me of the event that brought her
into prominence. Years ago, when
the Countess Rosebud was Mrs. Tom
Thumb, a report was circulated that
she had been blessed with child. This
was not the case, and the story was
made out of whole cloth by one of
Barnum's advertising agents. The
Thumb family were unconscjen-
tious enough to take advantage of the
canard. They had heard of the little
Princess Lucy, and Mrs. Thumb sent
for her and offered to adopt her, send
her to convent few years, and then
Introduce her to the world as her
| daughter. The scheme was a capital
one, for it is impossible to tell
whether Lucy is 4 or 40 years old. The
princess declined the offer. She is now
earning $500 a week for being
eighteen inches high.
There are several instances where
midgets appeared in single genera
ton of the family. The Harris sisters
are quadruplets. They vary in height
from thirty-six to forty two inches, and
are daughters of very poor man in
Eastport, Me. The father, mechan-
ic was a magnificent specimen of phys
ical manhood, large and powerful OF
build, and the mother was above me-
dunn size. These sisters are badly de-
formed, all of them having double
jojnted elbows. Besides this they en-
Joy the reputation of being the homli-
est midgets in the business. Young
| Foster, whose nom de museum is Hop
O My thumb is twenty-eight inches
tall. He has baby brother, not yet a
year old that weighed when ten days
old, one and one-half pounds.
Lucy Zirata earns the largest sala-
| ry of any dwarf in tn e world. She is a
native of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and is
very small. Her head is proportioned
nicely to her physique, but is shaped
like that of an ape. Joseph Smith is
her manager, and he gets $500 week
for exhibiting her The little woman
can not win the affections of full grown
mankind, but the men are more fortu-
nate. Baron Lt:lefnger married Ia
dy over five feet tall. and is the happy
father Of four fine children. The late
| Commodore Mutt welded Manchester
N. H., girl five feet five inches tall,
and left one child at his death. Min
ME Warren. sister of the Countess
Rosebud, it is true, married a roller
skater named Newell, who was with
Nat Goodwin in the "Skating Rink"
Newell, however, while hardly mid
get, is greatly under size.
| ''Midgets are nervous lot, and few
of them are more than passabIy in tel
ligent. They fly offin a tangent like a
dove from hornets nest. Hoppe Nv
Thumb is the ugliest youngster of
them all, and he frtguenniy INDUCES in
spasms of rage. Dangerous? Well as
much as twenty-eight inches of humani-
| ty could be expected to be. "-Detroit
| Tribune.